Forum Nokia Champion Personal Introduction Page

Mr. David Mannl
Master of Arts, Media Design at the University of Applied Science in Brunswik, Germany
Germany / England

My first step into the mobile industry was more like an experiment: What happens if you put a creative type of designer into a room with loads of Symbian C++ programmers? It changed my life.

At the time, I was doing an internship at Siemens Mobile for the team that did part of the SX1 integration. The UI specification was a long, long document that nobody was really able to understand. So we decided to use Flash 6 on a Pocket PC to mock up certain scenarios in order to visualize the flow and user interaction of certain S60 applications. This then was used in my marketing and engineering to discuss problems and find the best solution prior to implementation in C++.

From then on, everything went really quickly. Macromedia (now Adobe) contacted me about helping them understand what a Flash designer/developer needs and wants from a mobile version of the Flash Player. I was creating various demos and prototypes for the Flash Lite 1.1 implementation on S60.

These demos were so compelling that T-Mobile International asked me to develop a service with a Flash UI on top of a native Symbian application. This award-winning application, called News Express, was the first commercial implementation of a Flash Lite-powered mobile service outside of Asia.

My latest project is what I call “my little baby.” Four work colleagues and I have managed to make the first MBO (management buyout) from T-Mobile. We have created our own company, Refresh Mobile, which is based in London. Our mobile multimedia service called Mobizines runs successfully in several markets and on a wide variety of Java™ and Symbian devices. For more information please visit www.mobizines.com

I'm also a regular beta tester of Macromedia products from Adobe, and I try to prove with my daily work that Flash technology is a serious UI technology and not just Skip-Intro Web site nonsense :)

Development Areas of Interest

Mobile platforms

S60, Series 40, Flash Lite, PSP, Nokia Internet tablet, UMPC

Application categories

Multimedia, entertainment, games, UI

Programming languages

ActionScript

Wireless device technologies

3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth

Integrated development environments (IDEs)

Macromedia Flash Professional 7 and 8 from Adobe

Other areas of interest

Motion design
Illustration
Small-screen typography
MMI (man-machine interface)

Personal Competencies

Languages

German, English

Mobile competencies

UI designer, Flash animator, Flash application developer, user experience expert, rapid prototyper.

Forum Nokia Community activity areas

Flash Lite forum

Main Achievements

Applications

Mobizines, www.mobizines.com, lets users read magazines on their mobile devices.

Speaking engagements

Macromedia MAX 2004 - Developing Device Interfaces for Mobile Phonesa
Macromedia at 3GSM World Congress 2005. Changing the Face of Mobile -- Macromedia Flash Delivers Exceptional Mobile Experiences
Adobe at 3GSM World Congress 2006 -- How to make money with mobile data services (Example Mobizines)

Awards

Macromedia MAX Award 2004. Best Customer Facing Experience (News Express) http://my.adobe.breezecentral.com/p27613397/

AOP award for Innovation 2004 -- News Express

Mobile communities

Flash Lite

Other achievements

Created award-winning T-Mobile News Express, the first commercial Flash Lite 1.1 application outside Asia.

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